We have begun to plan for a new project called the Growing Food, Jobs & Justice Program, which will launch in the summer of 2007. This program will develop a social enterprise model that enables low-income residents of West Oakland to have access to local, organic produce at affordable prices and local youth to have meaningful jobs and training opportunities.

There are three primary components to the program:

1) Sunol Ag Park and Farm: In 2007 we plan to expand our acreage in cultivation and increase our food production. With an abundance of food being grown we will be able to expand our activities through an enhanced food distribution strategy that sustains local jobs and achieves financial self-sufficiency

2) Restaurant Supply Business: We will establish partnerships with local restaurants in the East Bay that are seeking to increase the local ingredients in their menus. We will dedicate 50% of the produce we grow at the Sunol Ag Park for sale to restaurants. The profits from this business will be used to subsidize the operating costs of the other 50% of the produce to be distributed to low-income residents in West Oakland.

3) S.O.U.L. Box: This will be a sort of modified CSA program in which the cost of the organic produce will be subsidized by the profits garnered through the restaurant supply business. The S.O.U.L. Box, which stands for Seasonal, Organic, Unrefined, and Local, will feature fresh local produce from our farm at the Sunol Ag Park. The program will especially target residents who are enrolled in the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) Card food stamp program.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 10:18 am and is filed under People's Grocery, Food Systems, Oakland, Urban Agriculture, Food Justice, Nutrition, West Oakland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.